Natural salt is of mineral origin, thus does not involve animals thus is vegan.
But how about a chemical of purely mineral origin? E.g. Can synthetically produced L-Ascorbic acid from ingredients that are purely mineral be considered vegan?
(I understand it's definitely not raw vegan as the T° in some of these chemical reaction exceeds 48°C)
Note: L-Ascorbic acid is Vitamin C in human...
TL;DR: if no animals are harmed and no animal products are used, then yes, it's considered vegan.
A product of "purely mineral origin" will be considered vegan if no animals are exploited in the process of producing it, since, as vegans we avoid using animals and animal products for our own ends wherever possible.
As far as I know, the synthesis of L-Ascorbic acid doesn't involve the use of animal products; vitamin C supplements I have seen are labelled as vegan (with the exception of gelatin capsules)
However, the article you link to is interesting:
Following the isolation of crystalline "hexuronic acid" from the adrenal cortex of the ox and from orange juice in 1928 [...] efforts were begun to synthesize this novel vitamin...
This highlights the history of animal experimentation behind vitamin supplements, and, to me, the fact that veganism is in a sense aspirational, since in the last analysis it's impossible to avoid some degree of responsibility and complicity in causing suffering to other animals.
Something edible made by sticking uranium ore into a machine and cooking it for 3 days at 100000 degrees (no I haven't a recipe) would still be vegan if no animal derived ingredient or auxilary substance (except maybe bullshit use to heat it - definitions differ here!) is intentionally consumed in making it. The occasional fly falling into the crucible also does not matter; if the taste RELIED on the fly flavoring it we are in definitions-differ territory again (figs come pretty close to that...).
TL;DR: The "vegan" status of a food or other product is 100% dependent on what is consumed to make it, not on a nutritional, food treatment, religious purity based, or culinary philosophy.
